Women with cocaine worth £150,000 hidden under wigs arrested in Spain

A wig is removed revealing bags of cocaine hidden on top of a woman’s head after her arrest at Madrid’s Barajas airport for drug trafficking (AFP / Getty / Spanish Interior)

Two women with cocaine worth an estimated £150,000 hidden under their wigs have been arrested on suspicion of drug smuggling in Spain.

The suspects, who are both Portuguese and aged 18 and 28, arrived from Sao Paulo at Madrid’s Barajas airport on different days.

They each had 1.2kg of the illegal drug contained in six packages and concealed with tape under their ‘realistic’ fake hair, according to Spanish police.

‘This new method of smuggling narcotics is very elaborate and difficult to detect due to the realism of the fake hair,’ said a joint-statement from the Guardia Civil police and Spain’s interior ministry.

‘The packages were perfectly adhered and did not stick out from under the wigs, which made the narcotics imperceptible.’

More than 20 tonnes of cocaine were seized by Spanish authorities in 2012, accounting for 41 per cent of the total amount of the drug seized in Europe that year.